Gravel Completes Ohsweken Sweep With Dominant Finish

OHSWEKEN, Ontario – David Gravel might want to take up dual residency north of the border after completing a dominant sweep of the Federated Auto Parts Showdown Thursday night at Ohsweken Speedway.

Gravel raced to his second World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series win in as many days at the three-eighths-mile dirt track by completing a charge from fifth to first in the 35-lap headliner.

He actually fell back as far as sixth early on, but used a strong lap-13 restart to soar around the outside of a snarling battle ahead of him and climb into the top three.

From there, Gravel found some bite on the very bottom of the racetrack, crawling around the inside berm to close on early leader Dylan Westbrook and rookie-of-the-year contender Conner Morrell.

Morrell led the middle stint of the feature and appeared to be in the driver’s seat in the closing stages, but got mired in slower traffic inside of 10 to go, allowing Gravel to close in and pounce.

Nearly glued to the inside wall, Gravel snuck inside of Morrell with eight laps left, completing the pass exiting turn four and quickly pulling away after that.

Gravel cruised home to the checkered flag by a whopping 4.196-second margin over Morrell for his eighth Outlaws win in 23 races this season and the 111th triumph of his career with The Greatest Show on Dirt.

“There was a little bit of grip to be had down there,” said Gravel of why he moved to the bottom late. “What a tricky racetrack. [The surface] was definitely a lot different than [Wednesday] night. I wasn’t really stuck that [well] on the bottom, but I had to go where that little bit of moisture was and use that down the straightaway.

“Had a good restart there [on lap 13] and that was really our whole race, was going sixth to third on that green [flag],” he added. “It gave me some more clear track to work with and eventually the ability to chase down Conner there. The Big Game Motorsports guys continue to give me good race cars; every time I hit the racetrack, Cody [Jacobs, crew chief] is on his game.

“It feels good to get another win in a two-day [event] with big money on the line.”

Gravel’s victory, worth $20,000, also allowed the Watertown, Conn., native to expand his championship lead to 178 points over new second-place man Buddy Kofoid, after sub-par nights for his main rivals, Logan Schuchart and Carson Macedo.

Ontario native and local hero Westbrook started from the pole after winning the Toyota Dash and easily controlled the initial start over leading Outlaws rookie contender Chris Windom, but trouble struck in the mid-pack after just two laps when Gio Scelzi got upside down exiting turn two.

Heavy left-rear and top-wing damage nearly ended the night for Scelzi, as he initially didn’t make it back from the work area in time for the restart, but caught a break when a stack-up at the green left debris in turn four and forced an immediate yellow that allowed Scelzi to return.

All the while, Westbrook controlled the early laps over fellow front-row starter Chris Windom, but the man on the move was sixth-starting Morrell – who had rocketed to third in the opening lap and took second from Windom on the fifth rotation.

Morrell quickly cut a 1.6-second gap to Westbrook in half by lap nine, then was nearly at Westbrook’s rear bumper when the third caution waved 12 laps in for a spinning Stewart Friesen in turn two.

Westbrook chose the bottom lane for the double file restart and fended off Morrell at first, but Morrell stayed right in his tire tracks and made a sweep to the outside in turns three and four to assume command for the first time at lap 15.

Quickly checking out to a two-second advantage by halfway, Morrell appeared to have clear sailing ahead, but Gravel worked his way into second place on lap 20 and made quick work of the lead margin.

Gravel cut chunks of time out of Morrell’s advantage as the latter began to get hampered by lap traffic, and pulled all the way alongside for the lead off turn four on lap 24 as Morrell’s car began to fade.

The young gun caught a break with one lap car as a pick, but Gravel remained committed to the bottom-most lane and finally fought his way past Morrell coming to the end of lap 27.

After running away by a full second in just one lap upon taking the lead, Gravel continued to distance himself from Morrell, who settled for a career-best runner-up finish but felt like he might have let his first Outlaws victory slip away.

“The car went away and the driver kind of went away too,” Morrell lamented. “We should have had it, honestly, but it is what it is. We’ll try again at Cornwall … but I feel like this team is getting closer [to victory lane.”

Westbrook hung on to third despite the best efforts of Sheldon Haudenschild down the stretch, with Haudenschild and Windom crossing fourth and fifth, respectively in their NOS Energy Drink-sponsored entries.

Jordan Poirier, Garet Williamson, Zach Hampton, Kofoid, and Donny Schatz completed the top 10.

After making the feature out of the Micro-Lite Last Chance Showdown, Schatz’s run from 23rd on the grid to 10th netted him the night’s KSE Hard Charger Award.

Williamson started the night by setting fast time (13.091 seconds) in qualifying, adding a heat race victory to his tally shortly after. Haudenschild, Gravel, and Windom also won their respective heats.

New York veteran Joe Trenca topped the Last Chance Showdown to lead the transfer cars into the main event. Notables failing to make the feature included United Racing Club stalwart Davie Franek and Canadian veteran owner-driver Glenn Styres.

Greg Belyea won the 20-lap DIRTcar UMP Modified undercard over Dennis Lunger Jr. and polesitter Joel Dick.

The World of Outlaws NOS Energy Drink Sprint Car Series completes its three-race Canadian swing Sunday night, May 18 at Cornwall (Ontario) Motor Speedway.

The finish:

NOS Energy Drink Feature (35 Laps): 1. 2-David Gravel [5]; 2. 28M-Conner Morrell [6]; 3. 47X-Dylan Westbrook [1]; 4. 17-Sheldon Haudenschild [8]; 5. 7S-Chris Windom [2]; 6. 28-Jordan Poirier [15]; 7. 23-Garet Williamson [4]; 8. 6-Zach Hampton [17]; 9. 83-Buddy Kofoid [11]; 10. 15-Donny Schatz [23]; 11. 52-Stewart Friesen [13]; 12. 17X-Cory Turner [3]; 13. 1S-Logan Schuchart [19]; 14. 41-Carson Macedo [12]; 15. 2C-Cole Macedo [14]; 16. 17B-Bill Balog [10]; 17. 55-Hunter Schuerenberg [7]; 18. 15T-Ryan Turner [16]; 19. 79-Jordan Thomas [22]; 20. 99-Skylar Gee [18]; 21. 18-Gio Scelzi [9]; 22. 77X-Alex Hill [24]; 23. 98-Joe Trenca [21]; 24. 22-Jonathan Preston [20].